TGS 2006: Ape Escape Racer

Share.

The once esteemed franchise skids out again.

By Nix

Something just fails in the translation of this Ape Escape franchise from PlayStation/PS2 to PSP. The original series -- and especially the first in the franchise -- was unique, innovative, and highly compelling. Many bought DualShocks for their PS1 systems just to play this game. But on PSP, the series has gone nowhere over a series of games. A port of the PlayStation original was decent but nothing special, while the Ape Escape Academy titles showed initial promise but little else in gameplay or party play fun.

And now, we have Ape Escape Racer, aka Sarugetchu Piposaru Racer in Japan. If you wanted Mario Kart on a PSP, or just Mario Kart on any system with just monkeys instead of plumbers, well, here you go. There's little to distinguish this game from the countless other kart racers out there in the demo we played at TGS, and the graphic performance of the game gave us little to look into for more hope.

The one unique element of Ape Escape Racer is that instead of go-karts, you play as monkeys with wheels strapped to their limbs. In theory, this sounds like a nice idea, perhaps something you could even play with in unique ways as in the underrated PS2 racer Kinetica. In practice, however, the only thing we can tell that wheels on monkey arms gets you is a cute animation where the monkey stretches his arms as wide as he can to brake. The monkeys will also kick up on two wheels ala Dukes of Hazard if they skid around a turn, but there doesn't seem to be any benefit to using this (control doesn't change much, in any case.) There are also a wealth of generic kart racer attack power-ups to collect and use, such as a bomb for followers to trip up on and rockets to take up racers ahead. There's also a disco ball attack that renders your screen black and flashes disco light effects for a short while, if you're interested in that. One cool element that may develop out in better stages is a rainbow extension of the track that often curves around portions of the track for a shortcut -- if you can stay on the curve as it turns upside down, you may cut out a big portion of the track. Still, accomplishing this in the demo still didn't get us fired up for the game.

Visually, this game would have been at least competent if it had ran at twice its framerate here, but that won't be the case in the final. The game was still plenty playable, but on a screen this sexy, one that you hold so close to your face, this level of performace in a simple kart racer just doesn't appeal. The colors are sharp, at least, and there are subtle shading effects used for lighting in caves and elsewhere on the track. There are also full-3D monkey spectators on the track to watch you race, which is nice after well more than one too many cutout cardboard spectators in other racers.

The TGS build was 80% done, with a release date here in Japan for December 7 and no US release date known. If developer EPICS can at least boost the framerate, this might be an impulse import for those who don't have any other portable kart racer, but otherwise, this one is looking to be one to pass.